There is nothing more striking and alluring than adding a touch of small glass beads to your jewelry designs. For thousands of years small glass beads have been used to create reflective and luminescent jewelry designs! Here at The Bead Chest we offer a vast selection of various small glass beads. From our lovely glass Afghani beads to our beautiful Ghanaian small glass beads and from our of beautiful multi-colored strands of small glass beads to our inspiring strands of small Czechoslovakian glass beads we have a great bead option for any and every jewelry and interior design project.

The production of glass beads can be traced all the way back to 5,000 years ago! Many beautifully intricate small glass beads and jewelry pieces have been found in various ancient tombs and archaeological dig sites in places like Egypt, Japan, Nepal, India, China and Morocco. Originally techniques for making glass beads and jewelry were limited to either glass blowing or glass winding techniques. As time moved forward artisan glass jewelry making techniques improved. During the 1300s in Venice Italy many glass bead making techniques were refined. Glass bead making techniques for creating small glass seed beads, chevron beads, wound beads and blown beads were actually all perfected during this time. By the 1590s trade routes were beginning to expand all over the world from Europe. Traders, explorers, dignitaries and travelers alike all carried small glass beads with them as a form of currency. As the demand for Venetian glass beads increased many Venetian artisans started to outsource their workloads to Bohemia (The Czech Republic) to be fashioned and designed into bead strands. The practice of glass crafting started to spread to factories throughout Italy and was further refined by various Italian artisans. By the 20th century small glass beads started being imported to countries all over the world. Since then the demand for quality small glass beads and jewelry has continued to increase. Even today artisan small glass beads are in high demand.

There isn’t a better time than now to add the refined touch of small glass beads to your jewelry and interior design style. Please feel free to take a moment and browse our curated section of assorted small glass beads. We are 100% confident that you will be able to find the perfect glass bead strands that fit into your unique design aesthetic.